Trends toward use of renewable resources in the automotive industry have led to development of natural fiber composite materials, such as plant fiber-reinforced plastics. These materials seek to replace the reinforcing components of traditional polymer composites, such as glass fibers, with natural or biologically produced fibers from plant or animal sources. Natural fiber composites have been limited to use as non-visible light-duty structural materials in automotive applications, due in large part to the chemical instability of the natural fiber component when exposed to sunlight and to the elevated temperatures sometimes experienced in a vehicle passenger cabin. Unlike synthetic polymers, the naturally occurring substances contained in natural fibers, such as cellulose, lignin, and proteins, cannot simply be blended with synthetic UV- or heat-stabilizing additives to improve their environmental stability.
Conventional laser processing of wood-based materials involves directing a laser beam directly onto a wood surface and removing wood material by burning or ablation. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,862,845 to Chin et al. teaches a method of removing material from piece of wood using an ultrafast pulsed laser with sub-nanosecond laser pulses. Use of ultrashort laser pulses is said to enable sanding, cutting, or carving of the wood without burning or damaging the cells of the wood material.